Chicken Yakitori Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is yakitori sauce made of? ›

What is yakitori sauce made of? Yakitori sauce is a mixture of soy sauce, mirin, sake and caster sugar. This sauce is then used as a marinade, traditionally for chicken.

Traditionally, they're cooked over hot Japanese binchotan charcoal on a long, rectangular grill that's the perfect width to rest the bamboo skewers across the top. The yakitori tradition uses every part of the chicken, from meat to organs to cartilage. Each chicken part has a distinct texture, flavor, and appeal.

Breaking Down the Whole Chicken

To get the thigh and leg, slice the skin, break the joints from the whole chicken, and pull it out. Slice off the butt skin and the belly meat skin (skin in the middle of the breast and rib). Pull the skin on top of the breast and “take it off” then slice it away from the chicken.

Given that it is mainly chicken, yakitori is considered by many to be a relatively healthy dish as it is high in protein. However, depending on the cut of chicken used, each skewer can range anywhere from 8-75 calories plus.

If you don't have sake then Shaoxing wine, or Chinese cooking wine, is a good alternative and as it has a long shelf life and many uses, it can be useful to have a bottle in the store cupboard. Otherwise a dry sherry would be another alternative.

Description. BBQ sauce for traditional Japanese yakitori chicken. This sauce is a perfect marinade and dipping sauce to get that slightly sweet, sticky flavour for your yakitori.

After 2 minutes grilling rotate the skewers to cook the other side, then rotate after a further 2 minutes, spraying intermittently with the sake-mirin spray. Brush the chicken with tare sauce. Repeat, adding more tare sauce and turning the chicken until slightly charred and crispy, but still juicy.

Spray with sake!

Spraying will help to caramelize the dish a bit while also preventing it from over-charring. Save this until the yakitori is nearly cooked through all the way.

For yakitori master Atsushi Kono, every part of the chicken is worth honoring, from its main artery known as hatsumoto, to its neck skin and belly skin, to yes, especially the knee bone.

Offer a refreshing cucumber salad (sunomono) and Japanese rice balls (onigiri) on the side. Condiments and Dips: Enhance the flavor of the yakitori skewers by serving them with a selection of dips like tare sauce, ponzu sauce, or yuzu kosho (a spicy citrus paste).

What is the most popular yakitori? ›

Negima (ねぎま) is one of the most popular types of yakitori and consists of pieces of chicken (usually thigh meat) skewered with pieces of leek in between. Momo (もも) refers to the thigh meat, so momo skewers are made up of pieces of chicken thigh.

Yakitori Sauce vs Teriyaki Sauce

Both can be used interchangeably in home cooking. The main difference is that yakitori sauce is only used for grilled chicken in Japan. Teriyaki sauce is used for a wider variety of grilled meats, vegetables and tofu, and is used as a marinade as well as a cooking sauce.

Yakitori sauce has a soy sauce base and then is flavored with brown sugar, garlic, cooking rice wine, and sake! The flavor is amazing. It's everything you could want from a glaze for grilled meats! Sweet, smoky, and savory with a hint of tang.

Yakitori (焼き鳥) are grilled chicken skewers made from bite sized pieces of meat from all different parts of the chicken, such as the breasts, thighs, skin, liver and other innards. Usually made to order and cooked over charcoal, yakitori is a popular, inexpensive dish commonly enjoyed together with a glass of beer.

Mirin is a Japanese sweet rice wine made by fermenting a combination of steamed mochi rice, koji (fermented rice) and shochu (sweet potato alcohol) for 40 to 60 days.